Truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver

ABSTRACT

In a truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver a mast comprises an upper and a lower section, and the upper section is mounted on a rotary table or frame so that it may be raised upright in hole digging or pile driving operation while the lower section is held upright at the rear of the table or frame and is adapted to be removably joined to the upper section when it is raised upright through a ball-and-socket joint or the like. A hole digger and a pile driver which are mounted on the mast describe the same circle about a common center when the rotary table is rotated so that te pile driver may be easily and precisely aligned with the hole dug by the hole digger.

United States Patent 1191 Inaba et al.

TRUCK-MOUNTED HOLE DIGGER AND PILE DRIVER Inventors: Kohsaku Inaba; Toshiro Ohga;

Teturo Ozono; Selsaku Yoshida, all of Tokyo, Japan lshiknwnIlma-Harimn Jukogyo Kabushiltl Keisha, Tokyo-to, Japan Filed: Nov. 18, 1971 Appl. No.: 200,087

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data Nov. 18, 1970 Japan 45/114606 References Cited 7 UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1969 Lisenby", 173/28 1451 Aug. 28, 1973 4/1971 Lisenby 173/43 X 12/1970 Campbell 173/43 X [57] ABSTRACT In a truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver a mast comprises an upper and a lower section, and the upper section is mounted on a rotary table or frame so that it may be raised upright in hole digging or pile driving operation while the lower section is held upright at the rear of the table or frame and is adapted to be removably joined to the upper section when it is raised upright through a ball-and-socket joint or the like. A hole digger and a pile driver which are mounted on the mast describe the same circle about a common center when the rotary table is rotated so that te pile driver maybe easily and precisely aligned with the hole dug by the hole digger.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures Patented Aug. 28, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet .l

lllll! {LOJOO Patented Aug. 28, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 mm nmm TRUCK-MOUNTED HOLE DIGGER AND PILE DRIVER The present invention relates to a truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver.

Recently the pile foundation works are much restricted especially in the residential area because of the noise and vibration caused when the hammer is dropped to drive a pile into the ground. When the pile foundation work is done near an existing building, the heave of the ground tends to occur so that the building is inclined and damaged with the walls cracked or fallen off. To overcome these problems, the recent trend is that a hole is dug or drilled into the ground and a pile is placed into the hole so that it may be driven into a desired depth by the minimum number of pile drivings or the minimum number of hammer droppings. To carry out such pile foundation works, the hole diggers and pile drivers have been used in the following manners:

i. Two different hole digger and pile drivers are used to dig a hole and drive a pile respectively;

ii. A common truck or the like is used to mount thereupon a hole digging equipment and a pile driving equipment, but the hole digging equipment must be replaced with the pile driving equipment or vice versa depending upon the hole digging or pile driving operation.

iii. Various machines are mounted upon a crawler or the like so that various works may be accomplished. I e r However in case of (i) the pile digger which is used only for a short time for finally driving a pile into a desired depth must wait for a long time until a hole is drilled or dug, thus resulting in waste in time. Furthermore whenthe two machines must be placed at a narrow field site, the operations are adversely affected. That is, after the hole isdug or drilled the hole digger must be retracted and moved to the next site while the pile driver must be advanced to the dug or drilled hole to drive a pile. Thus the cost of the pile foundation works is inevitably increased and the operation takes a long time. In case of (ii), the replacement of the hole digging equipment with the pile driving equipment or vice versa in the field site presents some undesired problems. In case of (iii), the large-sized crawler cannot enter into a narrow field site so that it may not be suitablefor a small pile foundation work.

One of the objects of the present invention is therefore to provide a truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver which may overcome the above described disadvantagesv and problems and may attain higher efficiency in pile foundation works by a single truck or the like. Briefly stated, according to the present invention a mast is pivoted to a slidable and rotatable carriage or table mounted upon a chassis of a truck or the like in such a manner that the upper section of the mast may be raised and held upright (as will be described in more detail hereinafter); a hole digger and a pile driver are mounted on the mast in such a manner that when the turntable is rotated they describe the same circle about a common center; and a hammer of the pile driver is stored in a lower position of the truck or the like.

One illustrative embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail hereinafter in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. I is a side view of a truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver in accord with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a rear view thereof; and

FIG. 4 is a side view illustrating a mast thereof in upright position for digging a hole or driving a pile into a drilled or dug hole.

Vertically extendable front and rear outriggers 25 and 26 are mounted upon a chassis l, and a turntable or rotary carriage 29 is mounted upon a subframe 2 for rotation about a bearing 4. Upon the turntable 29 is disposed a slide table or carriage 3 which is slidable upon the turntable 29 by a hydraulic power cylinder 30 and carries thereupon an operators seat 6, operation levers 5, a hydraulically driven winch 7 and a bracket in the order named from the front to the rear of the truck. A mast 8 comprises an upper section and a lower section. The upper mast section 8 is pivoted at an appropriate portion close to the lower end thereof to the bracket 9 with a pivot pin 10 while the lower mast section is securely fixed in upright position to the slide table 3 along the back of the bracket 9 as best shown in FIG. 1. When the upper mast section 8 is raised upright in a manner to be described in more detail hereinafter, its lower end is adapted to be joined to the upper end of the lower mast section through a ball-and-socket joint. The lower end of a screw rod 12 is pivoted to the bracket 9 through a reduction gear 13 and a hydraulic motor 14, and the free end of an arm 8a of the mast 8 is engaged with the screw rod 12 so that when the hydraulic motor 14 is energized, the screw rod is raised so asto raise the mast upright through the arm 80.

At the top of the mast 8 are fixed top sheaves 15 for lifting a hammer, swivel or pile, and lead pipes 23a and 23b for a hammer and an auger are fixed to the mast longitudinally thereof. A hammer I] is supported by the pair of hammer lead pipes 23a in such a manner that it may be stored along the lower mast section dismounted from and be slidable on the lead pipes 23a. The auger lead pipes 23b support an auger 18 having a cutter 19, a power swivel for driving the auger I8 by a hydraulic motor 21 and an auger guide 22 in such a manner that all of them may be removed from and be slidable on the auger lead pipes 231;. It should be noted that as shown in FIG. 3 the hammer l1 and the auger 18 are disposed in the form of a letter V with respect to the bearing 4 so that both of the centers of the hammer 11 and the auger 18 may describe the same circle A about the bearing 4 as shown in FIG. 2 when the turntable 29 is rotated. There are provided stays 16 for holding the mast in upright position whose lowerends are pivoted to supporting members 17 mounted on the slide table as shown in FIG. 4 when the mast 8 is held in upright position. At the'lower end .of the/mast-S is fixed a jack 27 which may be extended in the same way as the front and rear outriggers 25 and 26 to stably support the chassis l. v

There is provided an oil tank 28 which is communicated with a hydraulic pump driven by a truck engine so that the working oil under pressure may be supplied to the respective hydraulic motors. 7

Next the mode of operation will be described. When the truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver is not the rear overhang which is strictly limited by the traffic laws or the like may be overcome so that the truck may freely move. Furthermore the hammer 11 is stored in the lower portion of the truck so that the center of gravity of the truck is lowered to ensure the stability.

At a field site for hole digging or pile driving, the outriggers 25 and 26 and the jack 27 of the mast are extended as shown in FIG. 4 to stably support the chassis 1. Next the operator operates one of the levers 5 (See FIG. 1) to energize the hydraulic motor 14 so that the screw rod 12 is caused to rotate upwardly. As a consequence the arm 8a is caused to move upwardly along the screw rod 12 so that the upper portion of the mast 8 is raised and held upright as shown in FIG. 4. When the upper portion of the mast 8 is raised upright, it is coupled to the lower portion through the socket and ball joint so that the mast 8 may be now held in more stable upright position. In this case the winch 7 is also operated to loosen the wires coupled to the hammer 11 and the auger l8 gradually as the mast 8 is raised. After the mast 8 is held in stable upright position by the stays 16, the turntable 29 and the slide table 3 thereby rotate and move the mast 8 without displacing the truck so that the center of the auger 18 may be aligned with the axis of a hole to be dug. Next the auger drive device 20 is energized so that the'auger 18 starts to rotate and slide downwardly along the auger lead pipes 23b. Thus the cutter 19 of the auger l8 drills the hole and the drilled soil or the like is moved upwardly to the surface of the ground. After the hole is drilled, the auger 18 is withdrawn out of the hole, and a pile is placed into the drilled hole. Thereafter the rotary table 29 is rotated through an appropriate angle so that the center of the hammer 11 describes the circle A in FIG. 2 until it aligns with the axisof the drilled hole or pile. Thus the pile may be driven into a desired depth by the hammer in a manner well known in the art.

In the instant embodiment, the screw rod 12 has been used for raising or lowering the mast 8, but is readily seen that instead of the screw rod 12, a suitable hydraulic power cylinder may be used. It is further understood that various variations and modifications may be effected without departing the scope of the present invention.

In summary the following advantages may be accrued from the present invention:

I. The mast may be raised upright in operation and may be stored in horizontal position when not used so that the truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver may travel to a field site having a narrow space without violating the traffic laws or regulations. In addition the hammer is transported together with the mast so that the stability of the truck may be ensued. (In the prior art machines, the stability of the truck or the like is adversely affected when the heavy weight mast is mounted).

II. The hole digger or auger and the pile driver or hammer describe the same circle so that they may be precisely and easily made into alignment with the axis of a hole to be drilled and a pile to be driven into the ground without displacing the truck. As a consequence the pile foundation work may be accomplished within a very short time. Furthermore the mast may be displaced to a desired position without moving the truck so that the efficiency may be much improved and that the operation may be accomplished even by the unskilled operators.

III. Various works may be accomplished by one truck-mounted hole digger and pile driver so that only a small space may be required for pile foundation work and labor-saving may be attained.

IV. When the screw rod is used for raising the mast in upright position, the mast may be supported by the screw threads so that a safety device may be eliminated.

What is claimed is:

1. An earth boring and pile driving apparatus comprising a mobile truck having a turntable rotatable mounted on said truck, a bearing for supporting said turntable for rotatable movement, a carriage slidably mounted on said turntable, a mast having a first section carried by said carriage and normally disposed in a vertical upright position at the rear of the truck, said mast having a second section normally occupying a horizontal position, said second section carried by said carriage, an earth auger mounted on said second section, means for moving said second section and auger into a vertical earth boring position, the lower end of said second section being adapted to be connected with the upper end of the first section when the second section is moved to said vertical position, a pile driving weight mounted on said second section for driving a pile, the longitudinal axes of said weight and said auger being spaced the same distance from said bearing so that after the boring operation and insertion of a pile in the bored hole, the turntable is rotated to precisely align the axis of said weight with the axis of the hole.

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,754,604 DatedAugust 2a, 1973 Kohsaku Inaba; Toshiro Ohga; Teturo Ozono; Invent0r(S) Selsgku Yoshia It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby ccrrected as shown below:

' Claim 1', line 16, "second" should be --first-- Signed and sealed this 17th day of September 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON JR. c. MARSHALL DANN- Commissioner 'of Patents Attesting Officer uscoMM-oc OOBJG-PB ".5. BDVIINIIIII' IIIII'IIIG OFFICE IQ, 0-30? FORM Pl 

1. An earth boring and pile driving apparatus comprising a mobile truck having a turntable rotatable mounted on said truck, a bearing for supporting said turntable for rotatable movement, a carriage slidably mounted on said turntable, a mast having a first section carried by said carriage and normally disposed in a vertical upright position at the rear of the truck, said mast having a second section normally occupying a horizontal position, said second section carried by said carriage, an earth auger mounted on said second section, means for moving said second section and auger into a vertical earth boring position, the lower end of said second section being adapted to be connected with the upper end of the first section when the second section is moved to said vertical position, a pile driving weight mounted on said second section for driving a pile, the longitudinal axes of said weight and said auger being spaced the same distance from said bearing so that after the boring operation and insertion of a pile in the bored hole, the turntable is rotated to precisely align the axis of said weight with the axis of the hole. 